
QUAKER HILL 

OCAJU HlSTOHY) 

SERIES 



II. BavfolFrisb. 
E flfeemoir. 



MRS. PHOEBE T. WANZER 




Glass. 



Eh3- 



^-Aj^mJd^ 



DAVID IRISH 

A MEMOIR 



BY 



MKS. PHOEBE T. WANZER. 



READ AT THE THTRD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 

QUAKER HILL CONFERENCE, SEPTEMBER THE 

SEVENTH, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND ONE 



Published by the Quaker Hill Conference Association 

Quaker Hill. New York 

1902 



p 



PUBLICATIONS, 
Of the Quaker Hill Conference Association 



A Critical Study of the Bible, by Rev 
Newton M. Hall of Springfield, Mass. 

David Irish— A Memoir, by Mrs. Phoebe 
T. Wanzer of Quaker Hill, N. Y. (Local History- 
Series.) 

Quaker Hill in the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury, by Rev. Warren H. Wilson of Brooklyn, 
N. Y. (Local History Series.) 

These publications can be had by addressing the 
Secretary, 

Rev. Edward L. Chichester 

Quaker Hill, N. Y, 

Price 10 cents. 12 cents including postage, 



- 



INTRODUCTION 



The Evangelist of October 10, 1901, published 
a graphic account of the Quaker Hill Conference 
of that year. It refers as follows to this outline 
of the life of David Irish, which was read on 
Quaker Hill Day. 

"The sketch was simple as befitted the life 
it pictured, and so direct and perfect in its form, 
that it is hard to give even its flavor in a refer- 
ence. 

David Irish, well remembered by the old resi- 
dents who were present, was bom and bred in 
this neighborhood, dying in 1884 at the age of 
ninetv-two. 

Independence, courage, simplicity, are three 
words that describe his character. His whole life 
was devoted to the search for truth and the living 
it as he conceived it. 

The picture given on this day of this man's 
career was one to make those who contemplated 
it hungry to know more of such living. 

One saw his home, open to all in need, each 
welcomed with a grasp of the master's hand, each 
addressed by his full name, all, black or white, 
ignorant or learned, put upon an equality that 
while it leveled, dignified. 

One felt in listening to the account, that rest 
ful respect experienced in the presence of a man 
having strong convictions, and a quiet strength 
to live them in a world of conformity. The hear 
er was impressed by the power of the truth this 
5 



man held, not through his words, but through 
himself. 

David Irish believed in the sinfulness of slav- 
ery, of war, of capital punishment and intemper- 
ance, and lived a life not of mere protest against 
these things, but a life so rounded, so simple in 
its uprightness and so conspicuous for its moral 
fibre and charitable spirit, that any other view 
than his would seem impossible to a lover of 
righteousnessness, who knew him. 

One could well believe that one who led such 
a life would use the simplest words, the briefest 
and plainest statement, to express himself. 

All this, related in the Old Meeting House with 
its antique stoves, its long unpainted seats ranged 
in tiers, a familiar setting to the figure of this 
man throughout his long life, made the descrip- 
tion singularlv vivid." 




DAVID IRISH. 



A MEMOIR. 



Quaker Hill, as its name indicates, 
was largely settled by the Society of 
Friends, and until Akin Hall was 
erected in 1880 (and even that is not 
denominational), no house of worship 
except that of Friends has been found 
on the Hill ; doubtless some of the 
residents may have attended the meet- 
ings of other sects in adjacent locali- 
ties. Even now, when but very few 
are left claiming membership with 
that Society, some of their vital prin- 
ciples seem to have so permeated the 
people here as to be easily recogniz- 
able by those coming from abroad, and 
for a time casting in their lot with 
us. A certain all-pervading liberty 
of thought is in the air. 

Among the families of early settlers 
was one of the name of Irish (ances- 
tors from Rhode Island), of the life of 

7 



one of whose descendants, David Irish, 
it has been suggested that it might be 
of interest to the old, who still re- 
member him, and of possible profit to 
the yonng, to give at this time a brief 
biographical sketch, covering the sali- 
ent points of character. 

He was born the 20th of Sixth 
month, 1792, the seventh in a family 
of ten children, all but one of whom 
lived to mature years, several to old 
age; the subject of this sketch, the 
eldest, being at the time of his death 
(the 2d of Tenth month, 1884), some- 
thing over 92 years of age. 

The writer of this can tell but little 
of his boyhood, nor would it be of in- 
terest. In common with those of his 
time, children as well as parents were 
subjected to a strenuous life for their 
daily bread, especially those who had 
to win it from a not too fertile soil, 
with what would be considered in 
these days the rudest of hand imple- 
ments. 

The little school education obtaina- 
ble had to be worked for, and it is re- 
8 



called that David Irish, with one or 
two of his brothers, walked one win- 
ter to school, about four miles, to 
where is now the village of Pawling, 
or near there — and Quaker Hill winters 
were formidable even to sturdy boys 
iu those days. The learning they re- 
ceived illy sufficed either in quantity 
or quality the hungry minds longing 
for a fuller draught from the founts of 
knowledge. But those who survived 
this physical and mental ordeal were 
no weaklings; sturdy physical man- 
hood at least, and self-dependent, ex- 
ecutive womanhood generally charac- 
terized the graduates from this stern 
school, lacking very likely some of the 
refinements of a more luxurious state 
of society. 

It was as a minister of the Society 
of Friends that David Irish was best 
known in the community in which he 
lived. At what age he became an ac- 
knowledged minister the writer of this 
has no means of knowing, but believes 
it to have been soon after he reached 
mature years. He appears to have 

9 



had early religious impressions, and 
also his mind strongly influenced to 
an active protest against the evils of 
slavery, war, capital punishment, and 
intemperance. His character might be 
said to have had a little of the Puritan 
bias, in his unswerving, self-denying, 
practical following of the leading of 
duty and right, as it was given to him 
to see it ; he argued that it was always 
expedient to do right, and so 

" He set his face against the blast, 
His feet against the flinty shard ; 
Till the hard service grew at last 
Its own exceeding great reward." 

Believing that, "Whoso gives the mo- 
tive makes his brother's sin his own," 
he made his protest against slavery by 
abstaining, so far as possible, from the 
use of slave-labor products. This con- 
scientious scruple was shared in his 
earlier years by one, his favorite sis- 
ter, and together they made maple, to 
take the place of cane sugar, and used 
nothing but linen and woolen clothing 
(largely homespun). This abstaining 
he continued for himself and. family 
10 



until slavery was abolished ; although 
at a later period free-labor stores were 
kept, in New York and Philadelphia, 
from which supplies w^ere obtained, 
but at a higher price and of inferior 
quality. He, with his sister, took the 
first Anti-slavery paper published in 
this country, "The Genius of Univer- 
sal Emancipation," edited by Benja- 
min Lundy, and subsequently he took 
other papers advocating the same un- 
popular cause. He never felt free to 
join with Anti Slavery Societies out- 
side of his own, believing that by so 
doing he might compromise some of 
its testimonies ; but with tongue and 
pen he labored zealously within these 
narrow limits to obtain more active 
recognition of, and effective work 
against, the sin of slavery. In his 
home was always made welcome the 
trembling fugitive fleeing from his 
Southern prison house; he was fed 
and lodged, and with words of cheer 
sent forward with a few lines of en- 
dorsement to the next station towards 
the North land of freedom. Occasion- 
ll 



ally one was kept for a time and em- 
ployed, if it was deemed safe, and 
there must never be any distinction 
made in the family on account of his 
color ; he sat at the same table, and 
was treated as an equal. Indeed, there 
were no class distinctions in that 
household, and the head of it was 
careful never to call any one in his 
employ but by their whole proper 
name. These things may be looked 
upon as trifles, but they indicate char- 
acter ; the earnest desire to recognize 
a common brotherhood, independent 
of color, station, or circumstance. 

Against war in general, and for the 
substitution of arbitration in case 
of national differences, he wrote much 
for the little Friends' paper then pub- 
lished, also for some special peace 
publications. He was instrumental on 
several different occasions in sending 
petitions to our State legislature for 
the abolition of the death penalty, 
believing it to be, as he often expressed, 
a relic of barbarism, legalized murder, 
and do protection to society. 

12 



He never voted for any government 
or even town officers ; his reason, that 
the ultimate resort for the enforcement 
of law as governments were now 
formed, was force, and it was not jus- 
tifiable to do by the hand of another 
what we would not do ourselves. In 
the time of our Civil War he allowed 
his cattle to be sold by the tax- 
collector, not feeling free to pay the 
direct war- tax. 

His was a practical protest against 
the use of intoxicants as a beverage, 
when such use was made by custom 
almost imperative. 

In his ministry he was not eloquent ; 
plain exhortations to right living, a 
statement and re-statement of the fun- 
damental truths of the Gospel, as he 
understood them, a '"stirring up of 
the pure mind by way of remem- 
brance," characterized his public ut- 
terances. 

He was very faithful in the attend- 
ance of religious meetings at home and 
abroad, never allowing any other ob- 
stacle than sickness to prevent. In 
13 



his capacity as a minister he was fre- 
quently called to attend funerals, not 
only among those of his own Society, 
but often of others. 

His home was one given to hospi- 
tality, and one of the earliest impres- 
sions of the writer of this was the 
quietly instilled lesson, less by admo- 
nition than example, that the guest, of 
whatever station, at however much of 
inconvenience, must be courteously 
entertained. The warm, hearty grasp 
of his hand was itself a welcome. 

He was fond of reading, interested 
in the progress of discovery and inven- 
tion, and kept himself well informed, 
for those times, of the general events 
of the world. 

Of a good deal of personal dignity, 
he yet had a quiet fund of humor, and 
enjoyed a good joke, but the poetic, 
imaginative element seems to have been 
left out of his make-up : 

' ' A primrose on the river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him 
And nothing more." 

To his business as a farmer he added 

14 



that of land surveyor, followed it when 
called upon, and for a number of years 
he was the principal one in this vi- 
cinity. 

He was often entrusted with the 
settlement of estates, showing the es- 
teem in which his business capacity 
and integrity were held in the com- 
munity. 

Sharing in and sympathizing with 
all the duties of his self-denying life, 
was his wife, of most unostentatious 
character, but quietly strong in moral 
and mental worth. Physically frail, 
she yet lived to the age of 84, and then 
passed away, leaving but a fragmenta- 
ry life to the husband who had leaned 
on her wise counsels so many years. 
Being obliged, by the force of circum- 
stances, to give up in his later years 
the habitual activities of his life, his 
faculties somewhat stagnated, espe- 
cially memory of passing events, but 
his last days were most peaceful, and 
it is believed his life is held in loving 
remembrance by his few surviving co- 
temporaries on our beautiful Quaker 

15 



Hill, where he was born, and where he 
lived his long, useful life 



Descendants most, of those whose faith 
Looks inward for " The Lord thus saith," 
Of simple tastes, pursuits, and lives, 
Whose patronymic still survives 
The changeful touch of Time's rough hand ; 
Long may it grace our goodly land." 




